Posted on 06/19/2012 6:18:35 AM PDT by marktwain
It sounds like something from a futuristic thriller: police pick up spent bullet shells, find a tiny code on them that reveals what gun they were shot from and then use the ID to track down the killer. The technology to do this, called microstamping, is actually available today, but whats stopping it from being used and many criminals from being caught is politics.
There are battles raging across the U.S. over microstamping, with supporters of the new technology squaring off against the gun lobby, which is strongly opposed. It is hard to see why the critics are so upset and why they put so little value on microstampings potential to help fight crime.
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Gun violence in the U.S. is an epidemic. American gun-ownership rates are the highest in the world, with a remarkable 88 guns per 100 people. America also ranks No. 1 out of the top 26 high- and middle-income countries in gun mortality. In an average year, almost 100,000 people in the U.S. are shot or killed with a gun.
When police investigate gun crimes, they are often stymied by a lack of evidence. Guns are involved in the vast majority of murders, and according to the FBI, nearly 40% of all killings go unsolved because of lack of evidence. In many shootings, bullet casings are the only tangible evidence police have.
This is where microstamping comes in. If it were required, every gun would need to have a microscopic code stamped on the tip of its firing pin. When a bullet leaves the gun, its shell casing would be stamped with the code, which could be retrieved from the casings found at crime scenes.
(Excerpt) Read more at ideas.time.com ...
100,000 out of 300,000,000 or so people are not bad odds. More people are probably killed each year by twinkies and old milwaukee.
Makes me wonder what could be done to primers to get around this. I was initially thinking of a material that acted like a rubber which would return to more or less its original state without retaining the stamp. Easier might be an outer layer of material that fractures.
Now I’m thinking that these stamps are going to need to have a lot of “digits”, which means they would need to be very small, which means the idea of firing pin caps might just be feasible. Maybe customizable so you could leave your own message, or leave someone else’s stamp.
Thats a lot of firing pins to replace - not counting the spares.
Sounds like another of Obamas shovel-ready jobs.
I think the number of U.S. privately owned guns is more than 300 million. However, you hit on a real intent of the law: Make all the guns without microstamping illegal to own.
The citizen disarmament crowd are not as concerned with taking the guns away, as of making them illegitimate.
Once they are illegitimate, they can take them away over a couple of generations, as they have in England.
My 7 shot revolver doesn't leave any brass on the scene.
“I have read that the FBI estimates there are somewhere around 200 million guns in the hands of private citizens in the US.”
Here is a cite to the 300 million figure:
* Based on production data from firearm manufacturers,[6] there are roughly 300 million firearms owned by civilians in the United States as of 2010. Of these, about 100 million are handguns.[7]
http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp#[6]
With the record production in 2011 and 2012, it is likely over 310 million now.
It wouldn’t work with a revolver, that’s a strike against the idea.
Thanks for the correction.
That's even better!
Brass catchers are 9.00 at Midway. Or just duct tape an athletic sock to your pistol.
Problem solved.
Is Adam Cohen going to ban revolvers?
How come this buffoon isn’t going after all the Oldsmobiles in the country?
All the guns I know about haven’t killed as many people as Teddy Kennedy’s Oldsmobile.
I doubt he could, but you can always write him to ask if he’ll try.
“With the record production in 2011 and 2012, it is likely over 310 million now.”
Not sure how up to date those numbers are. The FBI has been using the same numbers every year for decades.
By the end of this year, Obama will have personally sold over 60 million guns. Not bad for an anti-gunner.
The number is probably closer to 320 or 330 million.
You’ve just shown how easily leftist dreams are squashed.
If they pass this, the value of my Smith & Wesson Model 29 44 Mag should double overnight.
BTW - The next step will be serialized Ammunition. When you buy a box they Register your name with the Serialized Box of Cartridges that you buy. Don't doubt me...
These are sneaky little bastards we're dealing with. Incrementalism is their tool of choice. Frog in a pot of boiling water stuff.
Koko's song from the mikado
As some day it may happen that a victim must be found,
I've got a little list I've got a little list
Of society offenders who might well be underground,
And who never would be missed who never would be missed!
I assume we all have our "little lists" complete with all information necessary to do our Gilbert and Sullivan thing.
All a wheelgun would need is stoning the hammer tip a little. But why do that? Brass goes away when the gun goes away. Or when reloading a revolver, just pocket the expended brass. Dumb idea.
The gun-banners' deep ignorance of firearm construction is simply incredible.
Stuck on stupid.
Stupid is as stupid does.
If virtually perfect currency can be created, why can't fake firing pin numbers be manufactured? Drug cartels, for instance, have unlimited funds and if it can be bought, they can get it.
Easier still, I see a brisk business for "blank" firing pins as a moneymaker.
Better yet, since "Secret government" databases never are, manufacture the number assigned to politicians, cops, federal agents, or that neighbor you hate...
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